**Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2015** **Shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2015** **Sunday Times bestseller** `It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon...' This is the way Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how she and Red fell in love that day in July 1959. The whole family on the porch, relaxed, half-listening as their mother tells the same tale they have heard so many times before. And yet this gathering is different. Abby and Red are getting older, and decisions must be ...
Read More
**Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2015** **Shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2015** **Sunday Times bestseller** `It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon...' This is the way Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how she and Red fell in love that day in July 1959. The whole family on the porch, relaxed, half-listening as their mother tells the same tale they have heard so many times before. And yet this gathering is different. Abby and Red are getting older, and decisions must be made about how best to look after them and their beloved family home. They've all come, even Denny, who can usually be relied on only to please himself. From that porch we spool back through three generations of the Whitshanks, witnessing the events, secrets and unguarded moments that have come to define who and what they are. And while all families like to believe they are special, round that kitchen table over all those years we also see played out our own hopes and fears, rivalries and tensions - the essential nature of family life. OVER A MILLION ANNE TYLER BOOKS SOLD
Read Less
Add this copy of A Spool of Blue Thread: a Novel to cart. $0.99, fair condition, Sold by ZBK Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Woodland Park, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Fair. Used book-May contain writing notes highlighting bends or folds. Text is readable book is clean and pages and cover mostly intact. May show normal wear and tear. Item may be missing CD. May include library marks. Fast Shipping.
Add this copy of A Spool of Blue Thread to cart. $1.08, good condition, Sold by Zoom Books Company rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Lynden, WA, UNITED STATES, published 2015 by Bond Street Books.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Book is in very good condition and may include minimal underlining highlighting. The book can also include From the library of labels. May not contain miscellaneous items toys dvds etc. We offer 100% money back guarantee and 24 7 customer service.
Add this copy of A Spool of Blue Thread to cart. $1.25, very good condition, Sold by Jenson Books Inc rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Logan, UT, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Vintage.
Add this copy of A Spool of Blue Thread: a Novel to cart. $1.46, good condition, Sold by Gulf Coast Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Memphis, TN, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Vintage.
Add this copy of A Spool of Blue Thread: a Novel to cart. $1.46, good condition, Sold by Your Online Bookstore rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Houston, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Vintage.
Add this copy of A Spool of Blue Thread: a Novel to cart. $1.46, good condition, Sold by Orion Tech rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Arlington, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Vintage.
Add this copy of A Spool of Blue Thread: a Novel to cart. $1.46, fair condition, Sold by Gulf Coast Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Memphis, TN, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Vintage.
Add this copy of A Spool of Blue Thread: a Novel to cart. $1.46, fair condition, Sold by Orion Tech rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Arlington, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Vintage.
Add this copy of A Spool of Blue Thread: a Novel to cart. $1.52, good condition, Sold by Zoom Books Company rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Lynden, WA, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Book is in very good condition and may include minimal underlining highlighting. The book can also include From the library of labels. May not contain miscellaneous items toys dvds etc. We offer 100% money back guarantee and 24 7 customer service.
Add this copy of A Spool of Blue Thread: a Novel to cart. $1.75, very good condition, Sold by Giant Giant rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reston, VA, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
UsedVeryGood. Size: 5x0x8; Very Good condition. Crisp pages. Clean cover and pages. Book shows minimal shelf wear. No highlighting/marking. Not Satisfied? Contact us to get a refund.
A large old-fashioned house in Baltimore is both the scene of and a primary character in "A Spool of Blue Thread" (2015) the 20th novel of Anne Tyler. The novel follows the course of the house from its construction by the Whitshank family, a family of builders and contractors. The Whitshanks soon acquire the house from its original owners and occupy it for decades. Age ultimately catches up with all. With the death of the family matriarch, Abby, and the growing infirmity of her husband, Red, the family is forced to leave the house as the family members go their ways.
It is a broad but simple story and shares much with Tyler's earlier novels. The book focuses on family life and on family members as well as on the old house as a unifying force. The book flips back and forth in time between the 1920s and the early 21st Century. The book consists of four parts, with the first and far the longest part set in contemporary Baltimore, the second and third parts going back in time to the courtships of the two primary Whitshank couples, and the brief final part returning to contemporary life.
Most of the focus is on the present generation of Whitshanks, with the mother, Abby, and the father, Red, and their family of four children, two boys and two girls. Three of the children have married with families of their own while the fourth, Denny, is the odd and most intriguing character. He has never fit in, wanders away from the family, quarrels, and has difficulty finding work. He has also been his mother's favorite. Denny and Abby receive most of the attention in this book. Denny in his aloneness resembles many men in other Tyler novels such as Ezra Tull in "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant" and Barnaby Gitlin in "A Patchwork Planet" as well as the wayward son Jack Boughton in the "Gilead" novels of Marilynne Robinson. For all of the book's emphasis on family, the wayward, solitary, Denny is clearly the character that most captures Tyler's heart.
The book develops the long story of family tensions and heartbreaks and of moments of togetherness and attempt to find unity. Tyler portrays each of the characters as individuals. The book moves slowly and includes some large communal family scenes, especially long dinners. The old age of Abby and Red is the glue that brings the family together as each of the children and their own families return to the old house to help their parents and to return to the tensions of old among them.
The earlier generation of Whitshanks, Junior and Linne, also play crucial roles in the story. They had met when young and got back together later. both under less than ideal circumstances. Their reunion takes place in Depression-Era Baltimore with the scenes of that time beautifully described. Junior establishes himself in the construction business and builds and maintains the old house, only to purchase it from its original owners as the family home. Much of the book shows the difference in classes between working people such as the Whitshanks and the more educated community where the old house is situated. The Whitshanks never fit in with their surroundings and become convinced of their own uniqueness.
"What a world, what a world" the title of Part two of the novel aptly describes the book and its story of the everyday. ."A Spool of Blue Thread" is a moving story of family and people, although it moves slowly in places. It is longer and more spacious than most of Tyler's novels. It took time, but I was drawn into the story and into the family. Tyler understands people and human frailty well. The book offers its moments of humor together with a clearsighted, view of people with their faults -- told without anger or criticism. Individuals, such as Denny, still must struggle to find their way. "What a world, what a world", indeed.
